The conservatives : ideas and personalities throughout American history / Patrick Allitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allitt, Patrick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conservatism--United States--History.

Conservatism.

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This lively book traces the development of American conservatism from Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Daniel Webster, through Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Herbert Hoover, to William F. Buckley, Jr., Ronald Reagan, and William Kristol. Conservatism has assumed a variety of forms, historian Patrick Allitt argues, because it has been chiefly reactive, responding to perceived threats and challenges at different moments in the nation's history. While few Americans described themselves as conservatives before the 1930's, certain groups, beginning with the Federalists in the 1790's, can reasonably be thought of in that way. The book discusses changing ideas about what ought to be conserved, and why. Conservatives sometimes favored but at other times opposed a strong central government, sometimes criticized free-market capitalism but at other times supported it. Some denigrated democracy while others championed it. Core elements, however, have connected thinkers in a specifically American conservative tradition, in particular a skepticism about human equality and fears for the survival of civilization. Allitt brings the story of that tradition to the end of the twentieth century, examining how conservatives rose to dominance during the Cold War. Throughout the book he offers original insights into the connections between the development of conservatism and the larger history of the nation.

Contents:

Introduction

The Federalists

Southern conservatism

Northern antebellum conservatism and the Whigs

Conservatism and the Civil War

Conservatism after the Civil War

Conservatism in the 1920s and 1930s

The new conservatism, 1945-1964

The movement gains allies, 1964-1980

The Reagan revolution and the climax of the Cold War

Conservatives after the Cold War, 1989-2001

Conclusion

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1-282-43743-7

9786612437434

0-300-15529-8

OCLC:

586146667